Here We Go (One Last Time)
by Sealure
Summary: And the day started out so nicely...Percy and Annabeth were all set for a nice, relaxing day in the park after all the insanity of the last few years. Apparently, the insanity isn't quite over yet...Birthday fic for my friend ValyrianFreehold!
1. You Have Got To Be Kidding Me

**HAPPY BIRTHDAY VALYRIAN! I am so sorry that this is so late! Here is the PJO oneshot I promised you. I actually got a little carried away with this, so it'll be at least two chapters. I could have done a super-long oneshot, but there was no way I could finish it today if I did that, so I split it, and now you get more!**

 **So, I hope you have had a spectacular day, and I hope that this is your best year yet!**

 **DISCLAIMER: This is Riordan's sandbox, I'm just playing in it.**

 **WARNINGS: Nope! This is pretty much angst-free. Mostly.**

* * *

 _ **Here We Go Again**_

* * *

It was a beautiful day.

The sun was shining, the sky was blue, the air was crisp and fresh with the cool beginnings of autumn.

Percy and Annabeth were sitting on a bench in Central Park. She was curled up under his arm with her nose in a book— _shocker—_ and after all the chaos and insanity of the last few years, Percy was more than happy to just sit there peacefully with the girl he loved, watching the wind play with the loose golden curls that had fallen out of Annabeth's messy bun.

The son of Poseidon leaned his head back and closed his eyes, savoring the peace of the quiet afternoon.

Olympus knew they'd fought hard enough for it.

Of course, he was still Percy Jackson, so ten minutes later, he was itching to _do_ something.

He jiggled his foot.

He tapped random patters on the back of the bench.

He hummed a few songs under his breath.

He watched a young girl playing fetch with her dog.

He tested to see how many leaves he could put on Annabeth's head before she noticed.

She slowly raised her head and turned to face him, and he gulped at the look of impending death in her grey eyes.

"Perseus."

"Yes, love?" he offered her his best, brightest, most innocent look, trying hard not to laugh at how ridiculous she looked with twelve leaves in her hair.

"You have, against all odds, survived to seventeen years of age. Do you _really_ want to die now?"

He shook his head.

"Wise decision."

She brushed the leaves out of her hair and went back to her book.

Percy let out a quiet sigh of relief and went back to watching the empousa play fetch with her hellhound.

Wait.

What?!

"Styx," he hissed, every muscle in his body coiling tight.

"Percy," Annabeth growled.

"We've got a problem," he said shortly. "There's an empousa and a hellhound over there."

Annabeth's lips thinned. "Di immortales," she muttered. "Just one day. Is that too much to ask for?"

"Apparently," Percy muttered. He sighed, rising to his feet and taking a thorough but discreet look around while Annabeth stuck a page marker in her book. "I had today going differently in my head."

Annabeth gave a strained laugh as she knelt and started packing her things into her backpack. "You and me both."

He offered her a wry grin. "Well, at least we get to take our frustrations out on the monsters. That's a plus."

She snorted. "Whatever, Seaweed Brain. Just keep an eye on the monsters, would you?"

"Got it," he leaned back against the bench, watching the deadly duo across the clearing. "They…are actually doing nothing but playing fetch. Red rubber ball and everything. Is that weird to you? That seems very weird to me."

"Because it _is_ ," Annabeth grumped, standing and slinging her bag over her shoulder. "Okay, let's go— _whoa!_ " She lunged forward, tackling Percy out of the way as a wicked set of claws slashed through the air where they'd been standing.

Percy grunted as he hit the ground, automatically rolling to protect Annabeth from the really irritated-looking empousa behind them.

The son of Poseidon leaped to his feet, summoning Riptide and slicing the thing in half before it could so much as flinch.

"Okay, I think I've had enough park time today, how about you?" he reached one hand down for Annabeth, eyes roving back and forth across the park.

"Agreed," she grabbed hold and pulled herself up easily. "Where's that other empousa and the hellhound?"

"They're right over—" Percy's voice died in his throat. "They're not there anymore."

"They were—" Annabeth swallowed. "Percy, where did everyone else go? This park was full just a few minutes ago."

The older demigod looked around, heart beating faster. Sure enough, there wasn't another soul anywhere in sight.

"That empousa and her hellhound got here at the same time as we did." Annabeth moved a little closer to him. "I think they were watching us."

Percy's jaw tightened. "Come on," he muttered, grabbing her hand and leading her out of the park. "We're going to my place, and we're IMing Chiron. Something's not right."

* * *

Percy tossed their bags on the living room sofa and made a _come hither_ gesture with his hand, guiding a spray of water out of the kitchen sink and through a shaft of sunlight, making a rainbow.

"Fleecy, do me a solid," he said with a grin as he tossed a drachma through the colored light. "Show me Chiron at Camp Half-Blood."

They waited impatiently for a few minutes.

"Yo, Fleecy, you trying to con more money out of me?" Percy asked, losing his patience. "This is kind of important!"

A moment later, the image cleared, but it was the cloud nymph herself peering out at them, not Chiron.

"Um, Fleecy?" Percy's brows furrowed. "What's going on?"

"I don't know," she said, a frown on her usually smiling face. "I can't get through to Chiron. And I can't find Iris, either."

Percy blinked. "What do you mean, you can't find Iris?"

"I mean she's gone," Fleecy wrung her hands. "She hasn't been to the store in over five days. Which is a little weird, but I mean, it's not like she _lives_ here, and I know she had that 'find the Oracle' quest and whatnot but she's not answering when I try to get in touch with her and no one's really seen her since last week and I'm not really sure where she—"

"Whoa, whoa, whoa!" Percy interrupted. "What do you mean, "Find the Oracle" quest?"

"I don't know!" the nymph very nearly wailed. "She's not been here in five days, and I don't know what's going on because _I can't get in touch with anyone!_ "

"Okay, okay, calm down!" Percy ran a hand through his hair. "Me and Annabeth will go talk to Chiron about it and try to figure out what's going on, okay?"

"Oh, would you?" Fleecy looked like she was about to cry in relief. "Thank you so much!"

"No problem." Percy gave her a strained smile. "Don't you worry about a thing."

He swept his hand through the image and turned to Annabeth, who was staring off into space, chin in her hand.

"I can hear the gears grinding from here," he teased, and knew he deserved the flick between his eyes. "Any ideas?"

"Maybe," Annabeth stood and grabbed her bag. "But I wanna talk to Chiron first."

Percy nodded. He grabbed his own bag, adding a few extra reserves of nectar and ambrosia before he scribbled a quick note to his mom and pinned it to the fridge. "Okay, let's go."

* * *

Camp was eerily still, Percy noticed as he absentmindedly patted Peleus on the nose as they walked by him and down the hill.

There were campers all around, but nobody was talking, and there was a tense feeling to the air.

"Percy-y-y-y!" someone bleated from his left, and the demigod had just enough time to brace himself before Grover was crashing into him. "SO glad to see you, man! Things have been crazy here."

"Whoa, G-man!" Percy clapped him on the shoulder when he finally let go. "What's going on here? We tried to IM Chiron, but Fleecy said—"

Grover slapped a hand over his mouth.

"Ixnay on the adbay ewsnay," Grover muttered, with a fake smile. "Not everyone's in the know right now, Perce. Come on, Chiron wants to see you."

Exchanging a troubled look with Annabeth, Percy followed his best friend up the stairs of the Big House and into the meeting room. All the head counselors were already there, and they called out muted greetings to Annabeth and Percy. Malcolm vacated the Athena chair to Annabeth, and Tyson squished Percy in a huge hug as he moved for his brother. Ella patted Percy's head from where she perched on Tyson's shoulder.

"Big Brother!" the cyclops cheered. "Missed you very much!"

"Hey, Ty," the demigod choked out. "Good to—to see you, too."

"Percy, Annabeth, it's good to see you," Chiron said with a thin smile at Tyson's antics. There were shadows under his eyes, and he looked older than he usually did.

"What's happening, Chiron?" Percy asked seriously.

The Centaur rubbed his forehead. "It's a very long story, my boy, but the gist of it is…" he sighed. "I'm afraid that Rachel has gone missing."

Percy's heart sank. "The Oracle is missing," he repeated. "How, exactly, did that happen?"

"We have no idea," Piper McLean groaned, rubbing her eyes. "She was at the bonfire last Thursday, but she didn't come to breakfast on Friday."

"Which isn't all that abnormal for her," Katie Gardner threw in. Her fingers were flying in her lap, anxiously braiding long strands of grass into an intricate circlet. "So I volunteered to take a tray to her, like I usually do. Only…she wasn't there."

Annabeth frowned. "Well, it's possible she just went home."

"Yeah, that's what we thought, too," Connor Stoll said. Both of the Stoll brothers were missing their customary mischievous smiles, and neither of them had acquired their usual piles of "misplaced" items.

"So we sent Grover to check on her, just in case," Travis said.

"She wasn't there," Grover said, leaning on the back of Percy's chair. "And her parents said she'd called and told them that she would be staying at camp until next month."

A cold feeling was growing in Percy's stomach. "Any chance she was summoned to Olympus?" he asked.

Which would be really odd, but still possible.

Nico shook his head, twisting his skull ring around his finger. "No," he said quietly. "She's not in the Underworld, though. If that's any comfort."

Percy winced. "Not really, but I appreciate the effort."

Nico cracked a humorless smile and Percy sighed.

"So, basically, the entire Greek community has managed to misplace our Oracle," he summed up.

"Yeah, that pretty much covers it, Boss Man," Leo shot some finger guns at him, just as cheerful as ever.

"Ella, do you have any idea where she is?" Annabeth turned to the pretty red harpy, who shook her head emphatically.

"Ella did not see Red," the harpy said. "Red went to the fire with Ella, but Ella did not see Red after. Ella went to get books with nice centaur man. And Tyson. Wonderful Tyson."

"Great," Annabeth sighed. "We've lost our Oracle."

"That's not all," Malcolm said from where he stood beside his sister.

Percy groaned. "No…"

"Several of the gods have gone missing, as well," Butch said, and Percy sat ramrod straight. "Including our mother."

"Some of the _gods_ have gone missing?" Percy repeated, all hints of irritation gone. "Who? How many?"

"Iris, Chloris, Apollo, and Morpheus are the ones who are both Greek and Roman," Nico answered grimly. "And then there's one who's only Roman—Carmenta."

Annabeth sucked in a sharp breath beside him. "Carmenta?" she repeated.

Nico nodded, and Annabeth swore.

"Who's Carmenta?" Leo asked.

"Her name comes from the Latin word _carmin_ ," Annabeth said, brow furrowing. "Which can mean _magic spell, song_ , or—or Oracle."

"Okay," the Son of Hades said slowly. "So, the Oracle, the god of prophecy, and a minor goddess of prophecy. That makes sense. But I don't understand the others. Neither of them have anything to do with prophecy at all."

"That's not exactly true," Piper said suddenly. "Chloris. She's a bringer of springtime, isn't she?"

Katie nodded. "Yeah," she said. "I've met her before, on trips to Olympus. She's super sweet."

"So, in a sense, she has to predict the end of winter to know when to kickstart spring," Percy said. "Right?"

Katie tilted her head. "Well, that's…" she frowned. "Actually, yeah. I was going to say that someone tells her when to do it, but according to my mom, she tends to start Spring the day before Persephone comes back. She just…knows."

Nico hummed. "Morpheus is the god of Dreams. I mean, how many times have our dreams been glimpses of the future or the past?" He saw heads nodding all around the room. "So he fits." He frowned. "The one I don't understand is Iris. What does she have to do with prophecy?"

In perfect unison, every head turned to Annabeth.

She sighed in irritation. "Contrary to what is apparently popular belief, I don't know everything."

Leo let out a horrified gasp. "What?!" he shouted, clapping a hand over his heart. "Oh, no! The world is ending!"

Piper slapped the back of his head. "The world already ended," she reminded him. "And we stopped it."

"Ow," Leo rubbed his head. "That hurt, Beauty Queen."

"Okay," Percy broke in before Piper could actually kill Leo. "Back to the subject at hand. Missing messenger goddess. Why?"

"To cut us off," Clarisse said, looking thoroughly irritated that the problem wasn't something she could just impale with her spear. "Isolate us. It's brilliant. We can't contact each other or reach the Romans. They probably have no idea what's going on."

There was a long moment of silence as the others digested that.

In the distance, the conch horn sounded the dinner hour.

Percy sagged down in his chair. "Alright, people," he said. "Go eat. Hopefully, we'll have some more information for you after dinner. Chiron, I'ma need to use your phone."

"Of course, Percy."

The other counselors filed out, casting worried looks back at Chiron, Annabeth, and Percy as the three of them headed to the celestial bronze-encased room that let demigods make short phone calls.

"Any idea who we're dealing with, here?" Percy asked as he punched in his mom's number.

Chiron sighed. "Possibly. I dearly hope I'm wrong, but this sounds a lot like…well, did either of you notice the spectacular show of shooting stars last night?"

Annabeth gasped. "Of course!"

Percy looked back and forth between them. "What? What am I missing?"

His girlfriend turned to face him. "Oracles and prophecy!" she said excitedly. "How could I have missed it?!"

"Missed what?!"

She spun back to Chiron. "Could it be? I thought she was an island!"

Percy blinked. "Wait, _what?_ Who?!"

Chiron sighed. "I'm afraid so, my dear. Furthermore, each immortal went missing after nightfall. There's simply no one else it could be."

"WHO IS IT?!" Percy barked, thoroughly irritated now.

Chiron turned to him, slumped shoulders and old eyes and tired spirit. "I am afraid that Asterie, the Titaness of Oracles and shooting stars, has returned once more to take her vengeance on Olympus."

* * *

 **And there you go! Chapter one.**

 **Chapter two is already pretty well underway, so I think it should be done sometime next week. I hope. And after that...we'll see, won't we?**

 **Anyway, I hope you enjoyed, and that your birthday has been spectacular!**

 ***hugs***


	2. I Wish This Wasn't Our Life (But It Is)

**Hello, lovelies!**

 **So, I finished chapter three of "We're Just Kids" the other day, and it got me in a PJO kind of mood. Plus, my school work has kind of calmed down for the week, which I am SO grateful for.**

 **SPOILERS: There are a couple mentions of book three, "The Titan's Curse", and a few mentions of the Giant War, but other than that, this is all original.**

 **DISCLAIMER: I obviously don't own Percy or any of his friends, and Asterie is a real mythological figure. I sort of made up her backstory, but not really. I did a bit of research on her, and as far as I can tell, she really was peaceful throughout the first war.**

 **Without further ado, chapter two! (ha ha I rhymed)**

* * *

"Great!" Percy hissed. "Another freaking Titan! Just what I wanted to hear!"

He slammed the phone back into its cradle before the call could connect and banged his head against the wall.

"But I don't understand," Annabeth started pacing. "Asterie was peaceful. She helped raise Apollo and Artemis! I mean, she's their aunt for crying out loud!"

"Really?" Percy's eyebrows went up. "Huh. Well, she's not getting any Aunt-of-the-Year awards this time around. She kidnapped her nephew. I can't imagine Artemis is very happy about that."

"I don't know why she has done this, only that she has," the old centaur said.

"Wait a minute, are we absolutely sure that she's the one behind all this?" Percy said. "I mean, if she was peaceful before—wait, what did she even do before?"

"She's Leto's sister," Annabeth answered. "You know, the mother of Artemis and Apollo? They were the daughters of the Titans Coeus and Phoebe. He was the Titan of Intelligence and she was the Titaness of Prophecy and Oracular Intellect."

"So, basically, Asterie has a really good grasp on the future and is really freaking smart," Percy summed up.

Annabeth glared at him. " _Yes_. Anyway, Asterie was a peaceful Titaness. She watched over the stars and stayed out of the war between the Titans and the gods. She—honestly, she and Hestia were in the same boat. They just wanted their family to get along."

"Asterie actually guided and protected the gods and their allies at night," Chiron put in, "using the stars to light their way. Of course, when the war was over, she stepped back again. Told them all very clearly that she had no interest in doing anything but watching over her stars and Oracles. Quite a sensible young lady. But Asterie was very beautiful, and—"

Percy groaned. "Lemme guess. Zeus noticed."

Chiron gave a thin smile as thunder rumbled threateningly overhead. "I'm afraid so. The Titaness had transformed into a quail and was fleeing through the sky over the Aegean Sea when Zeus caught up to her in his eagle form. She threw herself into the ocean, and became instead the island Asteria, or _the island which fell from the heavens like a star._ It later became known as the island of Delos."

Percy's eyebrows went up. "Wait, Delos as in the island-where-Artemis-and-Apollo-were-born-Delos?"

"Yes, Seaweed Brain," Annabeth sighed. " _That_ Delos."

"Huh," Percy said. "I just…do you think that's why Artemis and Apollo didn't have the split personality problems all the other gods were having during the Second Giant War? Because Asterie was protecting them?"

Annabeth blinked, eyebrows going up. She opened her mouth, then shut it again and turned to Chiron.

The Centaur frowned, stroking his chin. "It's very possible," he admitted. "She had surrendered her physical form, completely joined with her island. We thought she would not be able to reform, but the island was so beautiful and peaceful that we had no desire to harm it in any way…We had no indication that she was regathering her power, but it is entirely plausible that she protected them." A wry smile pulled at his mouth. "I will say that it is a very Asterie-like thing to do."

"How so?" Annabeth tilted her head.

Chiron snorted. "She was not fond of being predictable," he said. "But she was loyal, and as unwavering as the stars she guarded."

"Wait," Percy said suddenly, eyes going dim with remembered grief. "So, basically, she guards all of the spirits that make up the constellations?"

Chiron's smile went soft and sad. "Yes," he said. "No matter what they had done in life, Asterie gave them a place of peace and rest. I asked her about it once, why she was so kind to even the awful ones, like Orion and Hercules. She told me, 'It is not my place to be judge and jury. And besides, how are any of us any better? We have all done enough evil in this world, myself included. They are sentient beings with feelings and thoughts of their own, and they had no peace in life. The least I can do is give it to them in death.'" Chiron shook his head. "She was something else."

"So," Percy swallowed hard. "When Artemis sent Zoe to the stars—"

"She sent her to Asterie," the Centaur nodded. "Yes."

"That…this doesn't add up," Percy frowned. "Artemis _loved_ Zoe. They were practically sisters. There is _no way_ she would send her soul to someone she didn't totally trust."

"Well, obviously Artemis was wrong," Annabeth said brusquely. "Asterie clearly can't be trusted. Now Chiron, what are we going to do about a rescue mission? If we don't have an Oracle, we can't get a prophecy."

The son of Poseidon started to say something else before subsiding. "Yeah," he muttered. "I'm gonna call my mom, give her a heads up. I'll be out in a minute."

Chiron nodded to him and guided Annabeth out of the room with a hand on her shoulder. "I am not certain. Normally, I would tell you to go to Apollo, but…well, that's not exactly an option this time."

"I know," Annabeth groaned. "I was thinking that maybe—"

The door swung shut as Percy punched in his mom's number and leaned against the wall as it rang.

"Blofis residence, this is Sally speaking!" her cheerful voice came through just a few minutes later.

Despite himself, Percy smiled. "Hey, Mom."

"Percy! Are you and Annabeth having a good time? And will she be staying for supper? Scratch that, she's staying for supper. Oh, does Tyson want to come? If he does, I need to know now so I have time to make enough food for him."

"Mom, I don't—I don't think we'll be home in time for supper," Percy said softly, knowing she would be able to read between the lines of his statement.

"Oh…" her voice trailed off, and Percy closed his eyes as guilt clawed at his heart.

"I'm so sorry," he said, his voice going rough.

"That's alright, sweetheart," she said, and he could practically feel her hug through the phone. "I won't ask what's happening, I know some things are a little sensitive. Just…be careful, okay?"

"I promise that I'll try," he offered with a wince.

She inhaled sharply, because she knew that was all he could give her but that didn't mean it didn't _hurt_. "Okay. I'll hold you to that, young man."

"Yes, ma'am."

"Be careful, Percy," she said. "I love you. So, so much."

"I love you, too," he whispered, leaning his forehead against the wall.

"Come home soon," She said softly. "I'll keep your supper warm. I love you."

"I love you, too," he said again, because if there was one phrase that could never be said too many times, it was definitely that one. "See you soon, Mom."

He softly hung up the phone, closing his eyes and letting out a long breath before he forced himself upright and to the door.

"Here we go again," he murmured.

* * *

"—no way that would work, is there?" Annabeth was saying as he walked back into the meeting room.

The other cabin leaders had wandered back in, and Annabeth was pacing back and forth in the narrow space on the far side of the table.

"No," Leo said, brows furrowing and face unusually serious. "There's literally no way for that to work properly. Even if we could somehow get ahold of a piece of Apollo's energy, there's no guarantee it would integrate with our tracking tech."

"And a spell would be totally out of the question," Lou Ellen said, crossing her arms. "We…yeah, just no."

"Ugh!" Annabeth threw her hands up in the air in total exasperation. "This is driving me crazy!"

"Why don't we ask Artemis?" Percy asked, slumping down into his seat and leaning his elbows on his knees. "I mean, she's got a pretty solid handle on stars. Plus she knows Asterie really well and Apollo _is_ her brother, and you know how they get when the other one is in danger. She could probably tell us where they are. Or give us a starting point, at least."

Dead silence descended on the meeting room until Nico laughed, shaking his head.

"You've successfully led us through two wars that should have, by all rights, ended the world," he said, still smiling. "I don't know why it's still so surprising when you do something brilliant."

Percy rolled his eyes, trying not to smile. "Thanks, Cousin. I appreciate it."

Nico smirked and leaned back in his chair. "No problem. But in all seriousness, that would work."

"That…" Annabeth blinked, shook her head sharply, and started pacing again. "Yes, that would…that actually would work quite nicely." She grinned. "Good job, Percy."

He nodded and hopped to his feet. "I'ma go grab Fleecy and see if she can get me through to Thalia."

"But Mom is missing," Butch frowned. "How is an IM going to work?"

Percy grinned and mimed zipping his lips. "Sorry," he said. "Promised I wouldn't say anything."

He darted out of the room and into the kitchen, laughing at the good-natured groans, shouts, and laughter of his friends that followed him down the hallway. He pulled a stream of water from the sink and through a ray of sunlight, just like he had in his own home.

"Hey, Fleecy, you still there?" he called, tossing in a drachma.

The nymph appeared instantly. "Yes! Have you heard anything?" her wide, worried eyes fixed on his, thunderstorms blasting across her sclera.

"Yeah," he smiled reassuringly. "You were right. Something has happened to Iris. But!" he held up a hand, cutting off her panicked reaction. "We already know who it is, and we're putting together a mission right now. So I just need you to stay calm for me, okay? Can you do that?"

She took a deep breath, hands wringing in her lap. She nodded wordlessly, visibly biting her lip.

"Okay," Percy sighed in relief. "I need to talk to Thalia, daughter of Zeus. Can you connect me to her?"

Fleecy nodded again and waved a hand, causing the image to shimmer in a blur of rainbow hues. It cleared a moment later to reveal the Hunters' campsite.

"I want everyone packed up and ready to go in five minutes!" Thalia was shouting. "We've got a summons, let's get a move on, please!"

"Hey, Pinecone Face!" Percy called, and his cousin spun around.

"Kelp Head!" she said, relief flooding her face. "So, I guess you've heard?"

Percy nodded. "Do you know who's behind this?"

Thalia grimaced, tilting her hand back and forth. "Sort of. We've got a summons from our Mistress, but she hasn't been too generous with details. We have a really vague idea, but nothing solid. Why? Anything you'd like to share with the class?"

Instead of answering, Percy frowned thoughtfully. "How much of a detour would it be for you to swing by and pick up a few campers to take with you? We have a fairly good idea of what's happening, but I have a few questions for Artemis before we just charge in swords swinging."

Thalia blinked, then stuck her pinky in one ear and pretended to clean it out. "I'm sorry, say that again? I thought I heard you say you _didn't_ want to charge in swords swinging."

"Hey!" Percy's eyes widened. "Rude!"

Thalia's mock-serious face collapsed, and she burst into laughter.

"Oh, ha, ha," Percy glared at her. "Seriously, though. Something about this…Something doesn't feel right about this. If the culprit is who Annabeth and Chiron think it is…" he sighed. "I just...feel like there's more going on here than we're seeing right now."

Thalia's snickers tapered off and her brows drew together. "You're usually right about this sort of thing," she said. "And I trust you a heck of a lot more than just about anyone else, so we'll make the trip. We should be at Camp's borders around seven tomorrow morning, and if you don't mind helping us catch up the time we'll lose, we can take a boat down to Jamestown. That's where Artemis is."

"Done," Percy nodded. "See you tomorrow, Thals. And _be careful_ , okay?"

"I will," she promised. "You too, Kelp Head."

The Huntress swiped her hand through the image and Percy carelessly tossed the water back into the sink.

* * *

To absolutely no one's surprise, Annabeth, Nico, and Percy wound up being the three demigods chosen to complete the mission.

The whole Camp gathered the next morning to see them off, greeting the Hunters with forced smiles on their pale faces. Thalia gave Percy a quick hug before nearly squeezing the life out of Annabeth and ruffling Nico's hair. The son of Hades growled at her, glaring through sleep-blurred eyes. Nico was _not_ a morning person, much to the amusement of his cousins.

The nymphs had risen even earlier than they had to prepare a meal for them, which Percy greatly appreciated. It gave the feeling of normalcy to a day that was anything but.

When they were finished eating, the Campers quietly gathered at the base of Thalia's tree to say _see you later,_ because no one could quite handle saying _goodbye_ so soon after the Giant War.

"Be careful, Percy," Chiron said quietly as Percy clasped his forearm in farewell. "I do not know what you will face on your journey. But our prayers go with you."

Percy gave him a tight smile as he thanked him and decided not to tell him he had lost faith in the gods long ago. The only reason he was still fighting was because he'd been doing it so long, he didn't know how to do anything else.

"Ready?" he asked Annabeth.

She pressed their foreheads together briefly, squeezing his hand. "Always."

Percy smiled at her, reaching out to lightly ruffle Nico's hair.

He groaned, rolling his eyes. "Yes, I'm ready. To get this over with." He glared up at the sun with squinted eyes and huddled deeper into his jacket. "Can we go now?"

Thalia snorted. "Yes, _Dracula,_ we can go now." She raised her voice. "Hunters, let's move!"

As they broke into a light jog and Camp grew more and more distant, all levity faded. Percy glanced around him at the solemn faces.

Soldiers marching to a war, one more time.

But determination burned in his eyes and he took a deep breath and set his jaw.

They were _all_ coming back this time.

He would make sure of it.

* * *

 **And there you go! There will obviously be one more chapter of this. I already know how the story is going to end (which is really rare for me), but I don't know when I'll have the time/motivation to write it in a way I'll be happy with. But it's in the works!**

 **And "I'll Leave the Love" chapter nine will be up next Tuesday! I don't have class that day, so I should be able to get the whole thing done then. Of course, we all know how great I am with deadlines (I'm not), so we'll see what happens. But that's the goal!  
**

 **Anyway, let me know what you thought of this chapter, and I'll see you next time!**


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